2 Killed Near Chicago After Report of Hazardous Material in Home

Two people were killed and five others were sent to the hospital on Thursday after an encounter with hazardous material at a suburban Chicago home, the authorities said.

They did not identify the hazardous material or how it got in the townhouse in Des Plaines, Ill.

The two people found dead in the home were men, said Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department. One woman was found alive inside the home and was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition, Ms. Ansari said.

The other four people taken to the hospital were officers from the sheriff’s department. Ms. Ansari said they had received a medical evaluation and were released Thursday night.

“They appear to be O.K.,” she said.

Richard Dobrowski, the chief of the North Maine Fire Protection District, said the officers were the first to arrive at the scene. He said they went to the hospital because “they started to feel a little sick” after they did “a quick evaluation” inside the house.

He said they may have suffered from “breathing difficulties.”

Ms. Ansari said that the police did not know the identities of the people found inside the building or whether they were the occupants of the townhouse.